Snowboard champion Julie Pomagalski dies in avalanche

Julie Pomagalski, here December 9, 2010 in Paris.

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The French Julie Pomagalski, world boardecross champion in 1999, died Tuesday in an avalanche in the Canton of Uri, Switzerland, according to the newspaper

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She was part of a group of four freeriders descending the Gemsstock, a mountain known to the Lepontine Alps, when a patch of snow broke off.

Three people were struck.

One was slightly injured and taken to hospital, two others were found lifeless: Julie Pomagalski and Bruno Putelli, guide and rescuer based in Albertville, reports

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2004 World Cup winner

The 40-year-old Frenchwoman, in addition to her world title, had won a silver medal in parallel to the Worlds in 2003. Winner of nine wins in the Snowboard World Cup and the Crystal Globe in 2004, she had participated at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006.

Retired since 2007, Julie Pomagalski was the granddaughter of Jean Pomagalski, inventor of the ski lift in France in the 1930s and founder at the end of the 1940s of the Poma ski lift construction company, today a global heavyweight in transport. by cable.

• Avalanche

• Accident

• Snowboard

• Sport

• Ski